30 Day Fanfiction Challenge (Undertale Themed)
by crow102
Summary: My friend acheivingelysium challenged me to a 30 Day Fanfiction Challenge! So, here I am! Each day has a prompt for a one-shot, so I'm just posting them here instead of individually. Most chapters will be 1-2k in length. My ships may or may not end up contradicting one another. Don't judge me.
1. Introduction

**A/N:**

 **Hey everybody! My friend achievingelysium (you should totally check her out, she's pretty great) challenged me to do a 30-day writing challenge that she made! So, here I am. The prompts are all fanfiction-based, but too specific to really work into my ongoing project (oh, yeah! I have one of those! Except, for some reason, I haven't uploaded it to FF, despite the fact that I'm on the... third? chapter. Note to self: upload that.) Anyways, it'll basically end up being a collection of one-shots, so, rather than posting each story as it's own thing, I'll just put it here.**

 **Here's the list of prompts, in case you're interested:**

 **1\. red**

 **2.** ** _"Please_** **say you brought me coffee."**

 **3\. "when did u get a dog why did u get a dog do u realize this is a no pets allowed apartment are u trying to get us kicked out again? u almost burnt down our place last time" AU**

 **4\. birthdays**

 **5\. a one-way trip**

 **6\. (your choice)**

 **7\. "This is a park. Not a library."**

 **8\. shoes**

 **9\. a bad habit**

 **10\. battle**

 **11\. free choice!** ** _alternative -_** **"Leave me alone."**

 **12\. do a request! (pls send me requests ppl)** ** _alternative -_** **paper airplanes**

 **13\. children**

 **14\. "I'm not saying you're wrong, but... yeah, you're wrong."**

 **15\. the shop on the corner of the street**

 **16\. seasons**

 **17\. your characters are caught in the act of something**

 **18\. free choice!** ** _alternative -_** **festival**

 **19\. finish a chapters in a wip multichap!** ** _alternative -_** **movie ticket seller au**

 **20\. "Who said I was a good guy?"**

 **21\. do a request!** ** _alternative -_** **use the last text you sent as a starter.**

 **22\. find the nearest book and flip to page 11. go to the fifth line and use it as inspiration.**

 **23\. rainy days and board games (I feel like platonic Sansisk would be super cute here)**

 **24\. competition**

 **25\. write in a genre you usually don't.**

 **26\. "I don't want to leave."**

 **27\. permanent marker**

 **28\. betrayal**

 **29\. late night phone calls/texts**

 **30\. free choice!** ** _alternative -_** **package got sent to the wrong house au**

 **Oh, and if you hadn't gathered by the title, most of these (well, like, all of them) will be Undertale themed! Anyways, if you could pretty please drop a request it would be greatly appreciated!**

 **~Crow**


	2. Day 1

**Prompt: Red**

 **(That's all it says. I asked the OP, and she said it was intentionally vague. RIP me!)**

They didn't make a sound. That was good. They were doing exactly as I instructed them to.

I poked my head around the corner of the building nervously. It was one of the larger ones for it's time: the house of the village headman. Of course, today the humans have massive complexes of buildings that scrape the dark, polluted sky that expand far enough to cover the entire Underground. But this was centuries ago; the humans had barely made a chip on the massive rock that was the Earth. Yet they threatened our very existence like ancestors would have never imagined.

Gerson shoved his way through my feet. There was no sign that anyone had seen or heard us. It was late: most of the townsfolk were asleep, although there was still a small hubbub of drunken voices coming from the tavern, and several men could be seen crowded around the massive bonfire placed in the center of the village. Neither groups were a serious threat to our secrecy: those in the tavern had long since had more than their share of ale, and the men staring into the bonfire would be hard-pressed to regain their night vision fast enough to see us concealed in the shadows, several meters away. Our desire for secrecy was well founded. This was during the time of the war, and human disposition towards us was cloudy, to say the least.

I turned a quickly scanned the monsters congregated behind me. There were forty of us, which, by monster standards, was a fairly significant fighting force. This late at night, in a small village such as this one, in a period of time where humans didn't train there women to fight, it was unlikely that we would be facing a force of more than twenty humans. Of course, the humans had the advantage when it came to strength of SOUL, and, as Gerson, my self-elected strategist, had explained to me, the attacking force always wants to outnumber the defending one. I had come to value the turtle's opinion, and had taken his advice well in hand.

I nodded briefly at my forces. Each one of them seemed as alert as I, despite the late hour. I wondered if they, too, were having difficulty keeping their adrenaline levels close to normal. Creeping out from behind the shelter of the mud-brick house, I beckoned my troops to my side. My trident was a safe comfort in my hand: not too heavy, my grip shaped around it naturally, an instinct developed over years of use. Thinking back on it, it was shameful how comfortable I was with that weapon, how easily I prepared to bring a torrent of destruction upon the village like a flood sweeping in from the sea after a heavy rain. War does terrible things to one's SOUL. My trident has long since grown dusty from lack of use, my muscle memory impaired. I can only hope that my fire magic is strong enough if I ever have the need to defend myself today.

I could sense Toriel standing beside me. I did not see her: I was preoccupied with surveying the village, mentally reviewing the plan Gerson had devised for me. But I could sense her energy next to me. I slipped my paw into hers. She gave a reassuring squeeze. I took a deep breath, viewed the world in slow motion.

My eyelids closed and reopened slowly. I gazed out at the village with a calm sense of detachment, the entire thing surreal. Subconsciously, I lifted my trident off the ground. A soft night breeze ran through the village, carrying with it the smell of gorse and other flowers native to the island. Crickets chirped loudly in the plains surrounding the village, their song a prelude to destruction. We drew our weapons, prepared for the morbid dance of battle. I blinked once more, then inhaled deeply.

Then, I split the air with an earth-shattering roar.

" **Sir, goats do not roar."**

" **Oh, be quiet, Gerson. Nobody ever asked for your opinion."**

" **Maybe not, but you signed up for it when you made me your strategist all those centuries ago."**

" **I did not, as you put it,** _ **make you**_ **my strategist. You gave that role to yourself, tortoise."**

" _ **I,**_ **Asgore, am no mere** _ **tortoise!**_ **I am a** _ **turtle!**_ **How** _ **dare**_ **you-"**

" **Oh, do be quiet Gerson. I'm just trying to get under your shell. And, evidently, I am succeeding."**

The monsters surged forwards, each adding their own voice to my battle cry, joining together in a cacophony of sounds. I had a moment of doubt for a few seconds. My instinct would have been to approach silently and deal out death before they realized that we were there. Gerson, however, insisted that the sound of forty monster screaming as loud as they could would be far more frightening to the villagers. I was not sure I agreed but I trusted him.

At this point, adrenaline was coursing through my veins. I did my best to keep it in check, but my "fight or flight" instincts were beginning to attack my logic and careful blows. I narrowed my eyes, trying to suppress it, as I lead the charge into the fire pit. Stab. Block. Swipe. Duck. Stab.

There comes a point when, as hard as you try to keep your wits about you, you give yourself over to instinct and adrenaline. Contrary to popular belief, adrenaline isn't some super-drug that can give you superpowers or incredible strength. No. It turns you into a mindless fighting machine, incapable of controlling your actions. Your only instinct for survival, and it destroys your ability to place your blows carefully and calculatedly. Nevertheless, we vastly outnumbered the small group around the fire, and soon the ground was littered with human bodies. The air stank of burnt flesh as more than one fallen human toppled into the fire. The ground was a sea of red, stained with the blood of humans. I wiped my right hand, the hand I held my trident with, on my chest. It had grown stained with sweat and I did my best to remove it. I surveyed the ground. As far as I could tell, only two monsters had fallen in the brief but bloody clash. I took a deep breath. There was more yet to come.

I have no wish to describe the rest of the battle in much detail, and, indeed, I do not want to remember much more details of that night. Too much blood was spilt on that night. My memories of that night are washed in red. My name will always bear that red, a cruel reminder of my mistakes.

 **A/N:**

 **Basically, I got to the last paragraph and said "Ehhh, screw it." I've been feeling kind of out of it writing-wise and I really just want to play the Sims. So. I finished it their. Hopefully I won't half-ass it as much tomorrow.**


	3. Day 2

**Day 2:** " _ **Please**_ **say you brought me coffee."**

There was a rapping on the door. "knock, knock," a familiar skeleton said.

"Who's there?" Toriel responded. Her voice lacked its usual luster and enthusiasm.

"orange."

"Orange who?"

"orange you gonna let me in?" Toriel could envision Sans winking as he said the last line. She laughed, as was the custom. "seriously, tori, let me in, this is heavy."

The goat made her way to the door, opening it quickly and staring in mild surprise at Sans. He was laden down with three board games, two DVDs, and a basket filled with assorted food items. "Oh, dear," Toriel said. "Let me help you." She grabbed the basket from Sans's arms and turned towards the interior of her house. "Come in, of course," she stated flatly.

"h-hey, tori, you okay?" Sans asked, following her into the kitchen, where she deposited the basket onto the counter. Sans did the same with his adornments.

Toriel was quiet for a moment. " _Please_ say you brought me coffee," she said eventually.

Sans titled his head. "what for? you feeling despresso without your daily grind?" Toriel didn't laugh exactly, but gave a small snort through her nose, barely more than an accentuated exhale. The smirk disappeared from Sans's face, and he regarded the bovine with a more serious disposition. "okay, for real, tori, what's wrong?"

Toriel closed her eyes briefly. "I… I don't want to talk about it. Let's just… start watching one of the movies. I need a distraction."

Sans held up two skeletal hands. "sure thing, tori. far be it from me to pry. _the lion king_ or _T_ _itanic_?"

" _The Lion King,_ " Toriel said. "I'm not in the mood for something sad." Sans nodded and took the tape out from the bottom of the stack, carelessly pushing some of the other miscellaneous goods he was carrying off. They spilled haphazardly over the counter. "I'll make popcorn," the goat said, "Do you want to set up the movie?" she asked rhetorically. Sans waved his right metacarpals as he headed into Toriel's living room.

They were mostly silent throughout the duration of the movie. Several times, Sans glanced over at his friend. _Far be it from me to pry._ Maybe so, but he was curious, plus he had a vested interest in helping Toriel get through whatever it was that was plaguing her. Toriel's bowl of popcorn was still mostly full by the time the credits started rolling. "so, do you want to tell me what's wrong?" he asked now. "and why you need coffee to help you deal with it?"

Toriel shrugged uncomfortably. "Not really," she said. Sans gave her an unimpressed glance, the closest a skeleton could come to the raised-eyebrow look, and she sighed sheepishly. "I'm sorry. I know I haven't been myself tonight," she said, then interjected, "Want my popcorn?" She pushed her bowl over to Sans's side of the couch. Sans said nothing, simply stared at her through narrowed eyes, waiting for her to continue, as he shoved handfuls of popcorn into his mouth expressionlessly. Sighing, Toriel lowered her gaze, desperately trying to avoid Sans's eyes. "Coffee is a comfort drink," she muttered. "Well, no… ish."

Sans tilted his head. "wow, that really clears things up," he said.

"I know," Toriel said apologetically. "I'm sorry." She closed her eyes. "I always get depressed this time of year," she said.

"why?" Sans pressed. "seasonal affective disorder?"

"No, not that." The goat inspected her hooves. "Were you alive when the first human fell down?" Sans shook his head, and Toriel plowed on reluctantly. "Well. This is the day on which she died." Sans froze. He said nothing, but motioned for Toriel to continue. "It's just… I hold a vigil for her. I feel… responsible. Maybe if… maybe if I'd paid more attention, I would have… I would have noticed…" Her words became choppy as tears began flowing down her cheek. "I would have been able to stop her," she choked out. "Or maybe she never would have… have had that thought in the first place if… if Asgore and I… had a plan… to…" She didn't finish the statement. Her breaths grew ragged and choppy. "And I'm out of coffee," she said eventually. "And all I want to do right now is go to sleep. But… but I c-can't. Chara… My child… Chara…"

Had Toriel looked at her companion, she would have seen his eyes fill with sorrow. "hey, don't worry," he said. Toriel tensed as he put one bony arm around her shoulders. "humans... i know their type. i'm sure chara would want you to move on," he said. "not to feel inhibited by her. but if it's that important to you, tori, papyrus keeps a supply of coffee. not that he really needs it," he added. "i can get some for you if you'd like. i'd stay up with you."

"Hah… ha…" Toriel hiccuped. "Thank you, Sans." She smiled weakly. "But it seems like I might not need the coffee after all." He paused, the asked, " _Battleship?"_

" _Battleship."_

 **A/N:** **Just realized that all my paragraphs slammed together for some reason when I uploaded this. I fixed that for you all :)**


	4. Day 3

**Day 3:** **"when did u get a dog why did u get a dog do u realize this is a no pets allowed apartment are u trying to get us kicked out again? u almost burnt down our place last time" AU**

Papyrus shoved open the door roughly, dragging a heavy suitcase inside behind him. "SANS!" he called. "I'M HOME!"

The door to Sans's room opened slowly. San's head poked out. "hey bro," he said, running through the doorway and leaping down to the first floor of the house. "welcome back. how was your trip? why aren't you using one of the rolling suitcases? you wouldn't want to break your _backbone_."

"SANS!" Papyrus snapped. "WAIT, SANS. WHAT… IS THAT?" He pointed a skeletal finger just above his brother's shoulder.

"what? oh, he's my new pet," Sans said, reaching up to ruffle the head of a small puppy that was perched on his left shoulder. It's fur was white, and it had striking purple-blue eyes. "i found the little guy half-frozen in the snow. i guess you could say he was a _pupsicle!"_

"SANS!" Papyrus said, aggrieved. "YOU CAN BARELY TAKE CARE OF A ROCK, WHAT MAKES YOU THINK YOU'LL BE ABLE TO CARE FOR A PUPPY?"

"aw, relax bro, i got this all taken care of. i already gave him a bath, fed him twice today, played with him… the little guy's not so hard to care for."

Papyrus began pacing. "NO, NO, NO," he said. "YOU BARELY HAVE THE RESPONSIBILITY TO LOOK AFTER YOURSELF, LET ALONE ANOTHER LIVING, BREATHING CREATURE. NO," he sighed. "I SUPPOSE I'LL HAVE TO GIVE IT AWAY. I HEAR ALPHYS HAS BEEN WANTING A PET."

Sans snorted derisively. "are you kidding? alphys is absolutely a cat person."

"DO YOU HAVE ANY BETTER IDEAS?"

"uh, yeah, i could keep it _myself…_ "

Papyrus glared at Sans through narrowed eyes for several seconds. "FINE," he said eventually. Tentatively, he reached out and tickled the puppy's chin. The puppy lifted it's head in surprise, and leapt away from Papyrus's prodding hands, jumping onto Sans's right shoulder.

"stop, he doesn't like that," Sans said, grabbing Papyrus's wrist.

"OH, WHAT DO YOU KNOW? YOU CAN'T READ HIS MIND." He ruffled the canine's ears affectionately. "DOES HE HAVE A NAME?"

"i call him indogo," Sans said with an admirably straight face.

"INDIGO?" Papyrus asked, reaching under the puppy's arms and picking him up. "BECAUSE OF HIS EYE COLOR?"

"no, in _dog_ o," Sans said. Papyrus got as red-faced as a skeleton could. "c'mon bro, get it together."

"SANS! I AM ABSOLUTELY _NOT_ NAMING MY PUPPY A PUN!" he said angrily.

"chill bro, he's not _your_ puppy," Sans said, stealing the dog back from his brother. "you didn't even want to keep him, remember? you tried to make me get rid of him." He ruffled the fur on the top of Indogo's head roughly.

"SANS, PLEASE DON'T NOOGIE THE PUPPY."

"i'm not noogieing him, i'm petting him _ruffly."_

"SURE SUR- SANS! STOP IT THIS INSTANT YOU LOUSY EXCUSE FOR A-"

"sorry for being a _bonehead,_ bro," Sans interrupted Papyrus. Papyrus took a deep breath, evidently trying to keep himself from blowing a fuse.

"SANS," the taller skeleton said through gritted teeth. "INDIGO IS NOT YOURS. HE IS OURS. SO LONG AS WE LIVE IN THE SAME HOUSE, HE IS BOTH OF OURS."

"hah. you can't even say his name right, paps."

"SANS, YOU AREN'T RESPONSIBLE ENOUGH TO CARE FOR A PUPPY," Papyrus insisted.

Sans glared at his brother. "watch me," he growled. " _my_ puppy is going to be the healthiest, smartest puppy in the entire Underground."

 **Day 1:**

"c'mon, buddy," Sans said, placing Indogo down on the floor of his room. "we'll show paps. right, indy?" As if he could understand the skeleton, the puppy yipped in response. "see? you're a smart guy. i'm sure this won't take long. first and foremost, naturally we're gonna teach you to read. how am i supposed to teach you anything else if you can't read?"

 **Day 2:**

A pile of index cards were scattered on the floor next to Sans. Each one had a single word printed in moderately messy handwriting on it. Without looking, Sans picked up one of the cards. _Hoodie._ He read the word aloud to the dog, taking off his jacket and holding it up for the dog to inspect. The skeleton repeated this process with all of the cards in the stack.

 **Day 4:**

Sans held up a card. _Blanket._ He picked up one of the blankets that was haphazardly strewn across the floor after Papyrus yanked them off of him in a desperate attempt to wake him up. _Sock._ He grabbed a sock out of his mini-tornado. Repeat. Repeat.

 **Day 7:**

Sans looked down at Indogo, then glanced distastefully at the stack of index cards. "let's skip today, what do you think? consider it a weekend." The puppy yipped and pounced on Sans's slippers. "heh. let's go for a walk, little guy."

 **Day 14:**

Sans held up a card, not bothering to look at it. His expression was one of complete boredom. He had grown to loathe these sessions: they were dull and uninteresting and he often wondered if it was worth it. Chances were, the dog wasn't actually learning to read, he was just learning to observe visual cues as perform a task.

Indogo deposited a snowball at Sans's feet. Sans's room defied all logic and common sense, and the snowball was no except to this rule. Despite the heat blasting through the house, the snowball refused to melt, retaining its nearly perfect spherical form through all conditions. Hell, Sans could probably take it to Hotland and it would remain exactly the same as it was right now.

Sans glanced at the card. It did indeed say _snowball_. Or did it? His brain had mostly shut off at this point, conserving its precious energy for times when it would be more relevant. He was just going through the motions at this point, not actually reading. He hoped the half hour he had set aside each day for these practices would be over soon.

 **Day 27:**

"hey paps, i taught indogo to read," Sans said, entering his brother's room. Papyrus was sitting on the floor. He had a new shirt laid out on his rug and was busily giving the shirt sunglasses with a Sharpie marker.

Papyrus looked up. "SANS, DOGS CAN'T READ."

"yes they can," Sans insisted, a fact which he himself didn't believe, and he couldn't quite remember if he had believed it from the start. "let me show you." He scattered an assortment of the items on his cards across Papyrus's floor. The taller skeleton opened his mouth to protest, but Sans hushed him with a cutting gesture. Sans picked up a card. _Bone._ He showed the card first to Papyrus, then to Indogo.

Indogo made his way of the the pile of stuff of the floor and began sniffing each object. He paused at the plastic bone that Sans had stolen from Papyrus's stash of gifts to give to Undyne. He opened his mouth, was about to pick it up, before he moved on.

"SANS-"

"shh," the smaller skeleton hushed him. An annoyed look began spreading across Papyrus's face like a dark stain. After several seconds, he opened his mouth to speak once more, only to yelp in surprise as Indogo bit down on his right fibula.

"OW!" Papyrus shrieked. Indogo removed the bone from Papyrus's skeleton and dropped it proudly by Sans's feet. Sans promptly burst out laughing and clutched his stomach as he began rolling around aimlessly on Papyrus's floor. "SANS!" Papyrus screamed. "YOUR DOG JUST STOLE MY LEG!" Sans said nothing, but continued to laugh hysterically until Papyrus angrily dragged himself across the floor and shoved his fibula back into place.

Sans's laughter died down. "told you he was smart, bro."

 **A/N:**

 **...I have no idea what happened here. THIS WAS NOT THE PLAN C'MON, BRAIN.**

 **Also, I realized that I fudged up the paragraph breaks on Day 2 when I posted it for the first time. That's fixed now.**


	5. Day 4

**Day 4: Birthdays**

"Psst, Frisk." A soft object gently tickled the girl's cheek. "Frisk. Get up, Frisk." After several seconds without any response from the sleeping human, the "soft object" slapped across the girl's face. "Frisk, get up. Now."

The human's eyes finally opened, then widened briefly as they recognized an angry, grimacing face only inches away. "Ehh- Flowey?" Frisk said, rubbing her eyes. The flower hopped awkwardly across the girl's bed, struggling to keep from tipping over and spilling the contents of his pot over the bedspread. Frisk blinked several times and blinding light, no longer shielded by the flower, filtered into her optics.

"C'mon, Frisk," the flower said impatiently, his voice tainted with its usual malice. "We have to go in like half an hour. You overslept." He hopped off of the human's bed, his pot somehow remaining intact as he crashed against the wooden floor. "Get up, get up."

Frisk glared at Flowey through one eye. "Mmm. No," she growled, turning towards her wall and curling her blanket over her head in a desperate attempt to salvage just a few minutes more of sleep.

"GET UP!" shrieked the flower, stomping impatiently on the floor. After several seconds of no response from Frisk, he bit down aggressively on her blanket and ripped it off of her violently. Frisk groaned and curled up into a protective ball.

"It's cold," she complained.

"Better get used to it," Flowey snarled. "Get up! We're going to be late." Frisk groaned again as she reluctantly complied.

Frisk made a shooing motion at the flower. "Get out," she said. "I need to change." Flowey glared at her suspiciously for several seconds before awkwardly hopping backwards out the door, dragging Frisk's blanket with him. Frisk made a face at him as his disappeared from sight.

The girl emerged from her room twenty minutes later. She had changed into a blue knee-length dress and she wore light makeup. "What took you so long?" Flowey grumbled, hopping down from Frisk's couch, which he had sprawled himself across, spilling more dirt than Frisk would have liked across it.

Frisk shot the flower a withering glare. "I had to brush my hair," she said. "You're a flower. You don't need to worry about hair. I do. Now, come on." She grabbed the lip of Flowey's pot. Flowey attempted to bite her to force the human to let go. "If you don't stop that, weed, I am going to uproot you and throw you in the trash." Flowey resorted to growling at the human passive-aggressively as Frisk placed him on the passenger seat of her car and began driving.

Frisk pulled into the driveway of Sans and Papyrus's new house fifteen minutes later. Somehow, the skeletons had acquired fairly sizable wealth and were able to purchase a house in a well-developed neighborhood upon arriving in the human world. Flowey reluctantly allowed Frisk to hold his pot with perhaps less care than she should have as she walked up to the door.

 _Ding-dong!_

The door flew open in front of her, seemingly without any external interference. "HAPPY BIRTHDAY!" a chorus of voices exclaimed from the inside. A broad grin spread over Frisk's face as she recognized Toriel, Undyne, Alphys, Asgore, and, of course, Sans and Papyrus, as well as a dozen other monsters she had met from her time in the Underground.

"What are you all doing here?" she asked as she stepped through the doorway. "To my knowledge, only Sans and Pap- umph!" she cut off as Toriel grabbed her in a bear hug, smothering the human's face and with it, her ability to breath and talk.

"My child, how could we not come?" Toriel said, finally releasing Frisk. The human drew in huge gasps of air to replenish her oxygen supply. "Especially since this is your first birthday since you moved out!" The goat struggled not to embrace Frisk in a bone-crushing hug, instead choosing to satiate herself by patting Frisk's arm affectionately.

Frisk smiled. "Well, I'm glad you could make it."

 **A/N: Sorry I'm late with this one. The Sims was calling to me :/**


	6. Day 5

**Day 5: a one-way trip**

"'I want to go back,' I whispered.

'are ya sure, kid? once you go there, you can't come back,' the skeleton said. 'everyone here… they won't remember you. you'll have to go through all that again just to fix this one tiny mistake.'

'I don't know how else to set this right,' I said, my voice trembling somewhat.

Sans sighed. 'if you're sure, kid,' he said. His hood shrouded his face, but I could've sworn I saw a flash of cyan light emerge from its depths. 'You better not hurt anyone this time.'

'I'll do my best,' I told him, feeling my stomach clench in nervous knots.

'very well then,' he told me, placing one bony hand on my shoulder. I felt nausea rise within me and I closed my eyes. 'just remember kid, it's a one-way trip.' His voice sounded disembodied, far away. The pressure he was placing on my shoulder lightened gradually until it disappeared entirely. I crumpled to the ground, clutching my stomach in a desperate attempt to prevent myself from vomiting. _A one-way trip._

 _I peered down the precipice. Light dropped away towards the bottom, until all I could recognize was a small clump of gorse flowers at the bottom. My heart rate quickened momentarily, then slowed to a calm, blissful state._

 _This was it, I thought. The end was in sight. The grand finale. A fitting close to this grand tale. An alien warmth began spreading throughout my body. An ironic sense of euphoria; the first I had felt in months, years, even. I had forgotten how it felt._

 _I kicked off my shoes, feeling the spongy earth against my bare feet. It was cool and damp. It reminded me of my childhood. Long, almost-dead grass tickled my ankles. I took a deep breath, closing my eyes. I had long awaited this time._

 _I looked down once more._ A one-way trip.

 _A smile spread across my face, the first true one I had expressed in too long of a time. I spread my arms out to my sides, revelling in my freedom. Then, without any warning or chance to let any doubts creep in, I heaved my body weight forwards, off the precipice. My eyes closed once more. I waited for the final impact against the ground, the blissful release._

 _Patiently, I waited for it all to end._

I found myself lying in those gorse flowers for the second time, peering up at the sky. It was not quite as blue as I remembered it being on that day. I was keenly aware of the stinging sensation of cuts on my arms and legs, inflicted by the gorse bush upon which I was resting. I had not noticed those the first time. Then again, blood wounds were something I was much more familiar at that time. I still bore several parallel cuts on my wrists from that time, which was hardly surprising considering that technically, "that time" was only a few minutes ago.

I rolled out of the bush, struggling to free myself of the sticky plant. The ground was sharper than I remembered it being, and I berated myself for taking my shoes off. The next several hours would be a lot more comfortable if my feet were covered.

It's not what I expected. I thought I would be taken back to that time, that place, that point in my life. And while I guess technically I was, it did not feel that way. It was the same scene, yes. But the first time I was a depressed, irresponsible teenager who thought that jumping down Mt. Ebott would solve something. The first time, the taste of disappointment was a bitter flavor upon my tongue. The first time, I was disappointed that I had survived. This time, I was disappointed that I didn't have shoes."

"And was it worth it?" Frisk asked, her smile breaking through my vivid memories of what had happened that day.

I smiled back at her. "Not in the slightest."

 **A/N: okay that wasn't supposed to happen. The MC wasn't supposed to have attempted suicide, and they weren't supposed to be recounting a story to Frisk.**

 **But I am absolutely not at all disappointed that this is how it turned out.**


	7. Day 6

**Day 6: Free Choice-Greek Myth!AU**

 **A/N:**

 **A quick explanation on this one. If you haven't seen the YouTube video series Undertale: The Story You Never Knew by Treesicle, I strongly recommend that you do so prior to reading this-firstly, it's really cool, secondly, there are a lot of spoilers and** **I'm too lazy** **it would take too long to explain so I'm just going to redirect you to them.**

 **For those of you who have seen it, or for those of you who are too lazy to watch it or simply don't feel like it, I'm working with the theory that the Underground is really just Hell, or, for the purposes of this AU, the Underworld.**

 **Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to my headcanon that Undertale is a modern retelling of Orpheus and the Underworld (except without Eurydice).**

Orpheus thrashed around in the guard's grip. "Let me go!" he shouted, spittle flying out of his mouth in an uncontrollable rage.

"Humans have done nothing but harm us monsters," the guard said, dragging Orpheus by one arm. "Why should you expect us to let you run free when your kind did the opposite to us."

"My kind is not representative of me!" the young adult screamed. "Why are you judging us by the actions of our ancestors?!"

"Oh, for heaven's sake," snarled the guard, exasperated. "I'm sick and tired your whole 'Ooooh, I'm innocent' spiel. I don't give a flying fish whether you're innocent or not. You know what's more valuable to everyone? If you were dead! Now _come on!_ " The guard tugged violently on Orpheus's arm until the human had no choice but to awkwardly trip along behind the armored soldier.

Orpheus lost track of how long they were walking for. It felt like hours, but it could have been mere minutes, or even days. Trapped down here, without any way to see the light, there was no way to monitor the passage of time. The guard who was brutally dragging him along seemed tireless and gave no sign of lessening his pace or lightening the grip he had on Orpheus's arm. Eventually, however, the guard let go of him and shoved him roughly through a massive door with an unusual emblem engraved on it. Orpheus stumbled into the room, unbalanced, as the guard gave one last loving shove and sent him sprawling across the floor the room. Much to Orpheus's surprise, the floor was covered in a thick carpet of grass.

Orpheus, supporting his weight on his hands and knees, looked up at the room. It didn't seem much like a standard prison cell. Flowers dotted the ground and two massive chairs were placed in the room, one with a sheet thrown over it in an unsuccessful attempt to hide it. Looking past the first chair, Orpheus saw a giant man… monster… thing… kneeling on the ground, watering flowers. The creature looked up after several seconds, and smiled at Orpheus. He proceeded to stand up, dust the dirt off of his knees, and readjust the positioning of a heavy-looking gold crown that was placed atop his head.

The smile on the monster's face faded as Orpheus recognized him. "You're human," the monster said.

"You're Asgore," Orpheus retorted sharply.

"Afraid so."

"You want to kill me," stated the human.

"Once more, afraid so."

Orpheus narrowed his eyes. " _Why?"_

"I have to," Asgore said simply. "It is the only way to free my people."

"So you kill others so that you can roam free?" snarled Orpheus.

Asgore's eyes deadened. "Do you know how much hopelessness is spread across the Underground because of this? We have monsters going mad, human, monsters so wrapped up in denial of everything that's happened that it's tearing them apart. We have monsters killing themselves, because they think it would be better not to exist than to exist in this world. I am a king, human, and as a king the happiness of my people is my responsibility. If killing a few humans means ensuring their happiness, then I have no regrets in the matter. That being said," Asgore continued, standing up and dusting off his robe, "I ask that you forgive me for this." He pulled out a trident, seemingly from nowhere, and Orpheus felt his SOUL being tugged out of his body as Asgore engaged him in a fight.

Orpheus ran at Asgore, his shoulder twisted to the front in a habitual attempt to protect any vital organs from the full force of an attack. Less than a foot away from the monster king, he slashed my knife upwards, tearing part of his robe but otherwise leaving him unharmed. He attacked Orpheus with a barrage of fire magic, and he leapt around wildly, trying to dodge. Asgore eventually halted his attacks, and the human ran at him again, burying his knife in Asgore's ribs. A startled look crossed his face as Orpheus pulled it out, and he weakly attacked Orpheus with orange and blue attacks from his trident before sinking to the ground.

"You… were stronger than the other humans," Asgore said. "It was unexpected."

Oprheus sneered. "Good," he said, watching Asgore's SOUL escape from his body. The human leaned forwards, ready to snatch it up, beyond ready to return home, before rearing back with a startled shriek as a blur of motion crossed his path.

"Howdy!" Orpheus heard a familiar voice say. His stomach sank. "It's me, Flowey! Flowey the flower! I can't thank you enough," Flowey said. "You really did a number on that old fool. Without you, I never would have been able to defeat him. But thanks to you… he's dead! And I've got the human SOULs." The flower was briefly illuminated with white light as Asgore's SOUL seeped into him. The flower's SOULs were seen above his head-orange, yellow, light blue, green, dark blue, purple, and now white. "So close," the flower said with false pity. "You were so close to escaping back to the surface. So close to being free. But now… I'm afraid your fate is with the other fallen humans.

"Die."

 **A/N:**

 **...Welp, I'm only five days behind. That's not** _ **so**_ **bad.**

…

 ***goes to sob in corner***

 **Okay so I've been really busy these past couple days and I've had barely any time to write so I got behind and now here we are. Hopefully I'll be able to catch up this weekend? Maybe?**


	8. Day 7

**Day 7: "This is a park. Not a library."**

"Undyne, you need to get out of the house," her mother said. "Go outside, make some friends. Do something other than practice with your spear for a change."

"But mom," Undyne complained, "I want to be the head of the Royal Guard one day! I need all the practice I can get!"

Her mother looked unimpressed. "An hour or so less every few days isn't going to make that much of a difference in Asgore's eyes. Besides, Small Fry, the heads of the Royal Guard have to have good people skills, you know. Go to the park or something. Just for an hour."

Undyne huffed and sighed and rolled her eyes like a typical teenager. " _Fine,"_ she sighed, resigning herself. She departed reluctantly.

The garbage dump counts as a park, right? It's probably the closest thing to it in Waterfall, anyways. And there was _no way_ Undyne would be going to Hotland… As for Snowdin, well… the monsters there… were _losers._

Typically, the garbage dump was empty. Undyne didn't expect to meet anyone there, regardless of her mother's ridiculous notion of friends and relationship-building and whatever other crap her mom expected her to do. Today, however, the dump wasn't empty.

A small yellow lizard… dinosaur… thing was sprawled out on one of the piles of driftwood that was floating about. She had a stack of books to her right and was flipping pages through one of them, a goofy grin on her face. "Hey, punk," Undyne said, desperately wishing to be alone. "This is a park. Not a library."

"Uh, well, actually…" the smaller monster said nervously, "t-technically speaking… w-well, at least… I th-think… this is an, um… g-garbage dump."

"Oh, who cares, punk," Undyne groaned. "People come here to be alone, not to… watch you do whatever it is that you're doing."

"W-well… that's w-why I came here, t-too…" the lizard creature said nervously. "T-to be… alone."

Undyne huffed impatiently. "Ugh! Fine! Just don't both- hey, what exactly are you reading, anyways?"

"Uh… it's c-called… manga."

"The hell is manga?" Undyne asked as she began rummaging through a soaked cardboard box.

"It's… It's, uh… h-human… history books?" the lizard said uncertainly.

"Ugh! _Nerd!_ " Undyne said, producing a dull knife from the box. "Is it interesting?"

"W-well… yeah, actually. Did you know… did you know that humans wield swords up to ten times their size?"

"Really?" Undyne asked, genuinely curious. "That's AWESOME! Gimme one." She snatched up one of the books. "Ugh! What language is this is?"

"Uh… I th-think it's called… Japanese?"

"How the hell did you learn to read it?"

"I, uh, I don't know?"

"Hmph. Well. You have to teach me sometime," Undyne said grudgingly. "What's your name again."

"I'm, uh… I'm A-Alphys."

"Heh. Nice to meet you, Alphys. I'm Undyne."

 **A/N:**

 **...I hated this prompt. In case you couldn't tell. It sucks for Undertale.**


	9. Day 8

**Day 8: Shoes**

 _Water is not good for leather._

 _My shoes had grown soggy and were covered in a sticky substance. Their pale pink had faded to a gross, saturated brown, and their textured had turned to that similar to clumps of seaweed that had been floating around the ocean for years._

 _With a quiet hiss expressing dissatisfaction, I ripped the grimy ballet shoes off, examining them with a disgusted expression. They were virtually useless to me now. Not like I'd have any pressing dance competitions to attend down here, I thought grimly. I took one final sad look at the deformed, teared shoes, and, without any further thought, tossed them into a stray clump of tall grass._

 _Being barefoot was more comfortable._

The small bridge extending from the main path had gone unnoticed for the first three times I had passed this place. It is not in my direct line of sight, and I've always had more pressing matters to attend to than exploring my surroundings. Only this time, having RESET three times already, did I bother to explore the run-down side paths or to take my time and explore.

It was unusual, I reflected, that a perfectly square clump of grass would choose to grow here, of all places. It did not grow in a patch or field like the others of its kind, but instead stood alone.

 _A perfect little patch of secrets._ I didn't know where that thought came from, but it stole across my mind faster than I could process it. I blinked in surprise. My muscles twitched and I felt a strong desire, for no specific reason that I could pinpoint, to inspect the grass more closely.

The grass was softer and more leathery than I remembered its brethren being. Granted, each plant would be different, but this one seemed unnaturally vibrant. _My garden of delight._ My mind had an unusual itching sensation. I felt my SOUL energy being tugged on familiarly, and I glanced around warily, looking for any monster that would be attacking me.

For several seconds, there was nothing. Then, a faint clicking noise permeated the air, and a flash of color appeared before me, flickering for several seconds before becoming solid.

It was human-I think. I've never known any humans to be able to teleport. Her eyes were very, very blue, almost inhumanly so, and they were filled with sorrow. She had light brown hair that reached just past her shoulder blades, and her skin was olive-colored. She was smiling, but it was a sad, regretful smile. A weird dark blue light seemed to be cast off from her.

"You… you are human?" she asked, her intonation somewhat unusual, as if it had been years since she'd had a use for her vocal cords.

"That is correct," I said warily. She dropped her eyes away from mine.

"Run," she told me bitterly. "Run as far as you can. Get out of here."

I spread my hands apart helplessly. "I can't. I have nowhere to go."

"Run back to Toriel!" she snarled. "Do anything except go forwards. She… _Undyne_ … is waiting for you."

I raised my eyebrows. "Not like the door is locked or anything," I said sarcastically. Her eyes grew hollow.

"Go back to Snowdin, at least," she insisted. " _Please."_

"I _can't_ ," I told her. "I have to continue."

"She'll kill you!" snarled the girl.

I narrowed my eyes and shoved my hands in my pockets. "Then I'll have to take that chance," I said, attempting to cross the bridge back to the mainland. She somehow managed to teleport in front of me, barring my way, and I glared at her, propelling my arms forwards to push her aside, then stumbling forwards and looking back in shock as I passed right through her.

"What… what _are_ you?" I whispered, crouching awkwardly on the ground in the same position as I had fallen.

She gazed at me, tilting her head to one side. She took a deep breath, then stated simply, "I'm dead."


End file.
